Overclock Vs. Stock: The Pros And Cons

A Little OC Won't Hurt... Lots OC Will Fry Your CPU.

You can't hang around computer enthusiasts or gamers for more than a minute or two without hearing the term "overclocking" (OC). Although that is an unfamiliar term among the majority of comuputer users, there is a vivacious underground of overclockers who engage in this activity as a cross between computer technology and extreme sport.

Overclocking is a rather technical and involved process and anyone interested in subjecting their system to this procedure should "hang out" at one of the many overclocker forums for a while and ask a few questions before plunging in and potentially frying their PC.

There are generally three types of overclocking: CPU, Front-Side Bus (FSB) and Video Card.

CPU

CPU overclocking is the process of running your CPU beyond its listed "clock" speed. When you purchase a processor, the manufacturer has carefully set the CPU at a specific clock speed, such as 2.4GHz or 2,400MHz. That translates to two billion, four hundred million cycles per second. That's an outrageously large number. If each cycle counted a person on earth, you'd be done in less than three seconds.

Just a few years ago, we were all very happy purchasing PCs with $1500 CPUs that reached dizzying speeds of around 300MHz. These days, a dual-core with 2GHz on each core (for a total of 4GHz!) is considered "entry-level" and sells for well under $100 in the bargain basement bin.

Generally, the higher this number, the faster the CPU because a circuit often completes its task and has to wait for the next clock signal before continuing. By shortening the time between these clock pulses, computer circuits can perform their given task faster. If the clock is set too fast, the circuits will run out of time to finish up their task before another one hits them, and that will lead to system crashes.

FSB

The FSB is the main info distribution channel of your PC. It bus-ses data around your motherboard to your CPU, RAM, and all the other peripherals. If you increase the FSB clock speed you will have increased the speed at which the transfer of information occurs. When changing the speed of your FSB, the hard drives and video cards are typically affected the worst and data loss can occur.

Most CPUs today run at a preset multiple of the FSB clock speed which is also known as the clock multiplier. Let's use the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU. It has a x9 (nine times) multiplier which is locked thus cannot be increased. When Intel put your E6600 in the box it was preset at 266 MHz x 9 = 2.4 GHz. However, many overclockers will go into the BIOS and reset this number to 333 MHz x 9 = 3 GHz. By a very simple resetting of the way the computer boots up, you've just increased your system performance by 20%! However, not all overclockers are happy with this level of increased performance. Some will push their E6600 to 400 MHz x 9 = 3.6 GHz which is now a full 50% speed increase over stock.

The Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 CPU has a factory preset multiplier of 11. That means that even though the CPU clock is the same as the E6600, the multiplier is 11 instead of nine, providing 266MHz x 11 = 2.93GHz. However, the X6800 has a fully unlocked multiplier, so there are two options for increasing the speed of this system: You can change the 266MHz or the 11 multiplier. The X6800 will usually easily take a multiplier of 13, making it run at 266MHz x 13 = 3.46GHz. Or, you can leave the multiplier as is and increase the frequency to 333MHz x 11 = 3.66GHz. Or get crazy and start experimenting with changing both settings!

Video Card

Many of the newer video cards come with software that will let you adjust the clock and processor speed of the card. The adjustments are effectively identical to CPU and FSB as shown above.

Voltage

This stressing of your system is brought to even higher levels by the overclocking technique of increasing the voltage. This makes each clock pulse more powerful and less likely to get "lost" in the CPU. Most fried CPUs result from applying a little too much voltage, thus it is heartily recommended that you don't mess with voltage unless you really know what you're doing... and have deep pockets to replace CPUs.

Reliability & Stability

All overclocking takes a measure of reliability and stability away from the system. In cases of milder overclocking, this shortening of reliability and stability is negligible and thus not significant. If your system lasts 14 years instead of 15 years it's fairly irrelevant as it will likely be in the junkyard by then, and if you end up with an extra crash every month or so, it's no big deal. When the higher levels of overclocking are reached the reliability and stability decreases exponentially, and some maxed-out systems can only keep running for a few minutes or even seconds at a time.

Look at it this way: The manufacturer's preset speeds are the equivalent of a "red line" on a sportscar's tachometer. It is the maximum indicated speed that the CPU should run at to ensure adherence with the manufacturer's warranty.

The reasons why a certain clock and multiplier is set are very similar to the reasons for setting an engine's redline: Beyond a particular speed, the CPU/engine might go faster, but at the price of greater heat generation and shortened service life. And just like sportscars, the faster CPUs go, the more likely they are to crash!

An electronic phenomenon called electromigration is one of the main reasons for decreased reliability and stability. This phenomenon literally moves particles out of circuits, carving out microscopic canyons and changing the route that the electrons take through the CPU with deleterious results. Furthermore, any increase of speed or voltage of your CPU is asking it to do more work which means more electricity flowing through it which equals more heat. Heat and electromigration are the main reasons why highly overclocked systems fail.

Cooling

To keep the heat at a minimum, an overclocked CPU will have to be very well cooled, most likely with a top-end water-cooling system with at least two 120mm fans on the radiators, and three would be even better. Cooling is possibly the single most important factor in overclocking. If you can figure out a way to get your CPU cooler, then generally faster you can overclock it. As I mentioned in my recent "Best Chill For Your Rig: Air, Water or Peltier Cooling":

Some extreme enthusiasts have gone all the way to Liquid Nitrogen to cool their rigs in an attempt to set a speed record. The current record-holder among enthusiast-level CPUs is an Italian team that reached 5011MHz on an Intel C2D X6800 by literally freezing it in a nice, chilly -147°C bath. Before you think that this could be an option to cool your overheated system, keep in mind that by the end of the speed test most of the electronic components were destroyed by the liquid gas, so unless you have an uncle in the computer business, it might be a good idea to stick to more conventional cooling solutions.

To OC or not to OC

Mild overclocking is generally a safe procedure and will result in noticeable speed increases in the way your PC performs. The problem is what happens when you reach the OC lunatic fringe. There are countless forums on the internet where extreme overclockers compete against each other for bragging rights of who got which CPU up to what outrageous speed. There are no formal prizes or financial rewards in this pursuit, it's just a form of extreme sport which breaks CPUs instead of bones. It's also a very expensive sport as the chase of the ultimate speed leaves behind a trail of sizzled and unusable CPUs. It's not a sport that I would recommend to the faint-hearted or anyone with limited disposable income.

Comments

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Author

Hal Licino 8 years agofrom Toronto

AMD is a total loss of a company. They have not done anything to advance CPU technology in several years, so as far as I'm concerned, there is already a CPU monopoly! :)

JaymoJustice 8 years agofrom Saskatoon, Canada

Good information, perhaps add that AMD smashed the 5Ghz Cpu speed on a standard cpu using liquid nitroger + helium, they got theres to arround 6Ghz, and then intel beat it like 20 mins later....

Author

Hal Licino 8 years agofrom Toronto

Hi, jason1701! After all I am currently standing at 1,026 Hubs, averaging about 800 words each, that comes out to the equivalent of 15 full length novels! A heck of a lot of reading total! And I'm nowhere near tapped out yet. I'll keep on Hubbin'!

I'm a real adherent of overclocking only to manufacturer's limits. I sure as heck don't want to void the warranty on my Core i7!

The new Core i7s overclock very well, especially if you are lucky / smart enough to get the D0 stepping on the 920. That sucker flies! I've set my i7 920 just on plain vanilla turbo, but with my Velociraptor boot drive and 12 GB of RAM it is WAY more than fast enough to do anything I want at warp speed. I launch Photoshop CS4 in about two seconds. Try that on a lesser machine. WOW! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo impressed by the i7 series that I'm just floored by it.

We seem to have the same interests! Im an overclocker! If I bought the latest PC I would still feel the need to overclock! I know what I'm doing and in 12 years of having a pc and pushing them all to the limits I have never fried anything! Cooling solutions are paramount when overclocking.

I don't ride my Busa fast but my pc has to be quantom fast! What's your dig on the new Core i7's and wheres your new solution hub for hyper bike dicks?

Author

Hal Licino 9 years agofrom Toronto

Hmm... I guess that the fact that I have thousands of readers means that they like to read crap? What do you do for a living? Shovel it? :P

IceMan 9 years ago

Sigh... Don't you have anything better to do than write crap ?

You need help my friend :)

Author

Hal Licino 9 years agofrom Toronto

Ah. You're a Mensan. That explains it. Sheesh...

ki4lse 9 years ago

Alas! Your sharp retort has cut me to the quick!

Shall I void my degrees? Shall I return my amateur radio license and my radiotelephone license? Shall I send my repairman certificate back to the FAA? Need I resign from Mensa? The Great Licino has revealed me for the utter intellectual fraud I am! Oh, woe is me!!!

Author

Hal Licino 9 years agofrom Toronto

No, is the weakness of your inability to comprehend simple concepts a result of poor education or your lack of intelligence? :)

ki4lse 9 years ago

You're right; you did not literally state that frequency clock is additive, you carelessly implied you think it is. Mea Culpa for the &quot;cock&quot; (clock) typo. Is the weakness of the rest of the article the result of your poor writing skills or your lack of technical comprehension?

Author

Hal Licino 9 years agofrom Toronto

I never stated that core frequency was additive. The way I worded it is accurate. Go back to your &quot;extreme cock (sic)&quot; :)

ki4lse 9 years ago

An interesting attempt at explaining overclocking and its hazards, but you should improve your electronics technical chops before another such endeavor.1) Processor core frequency is not additive. 2x2GHz cores do not make a 4GHz processor.2) System instability at extreme cock speeds is a function of insufficient voltage slew rate, not circuit timing issues. The system becomes unstable when the logic pulse is unable to rise to a &quot;valid&quot; level fast enough to register.3) FSB frequency and peripheral bus frequency are not linked on any current production chipset. Increasing your FSB frequency will not change the PCI or PCI-E frequency and will not affect hard drive or video card bus speed.4) Voltage increases support higher CPU frequencies not because they make &quot;more powerful&quot; pulses, but because the higher voltage increases the voltage slew rate (overcoming the capacitance within the circuit), reaching a &quot;valid&quot; more quickly.5) Your &quot;red line&quot; analogy is flawed, in that CPUs are speed binned per market requirements, not technical requirements. Intel and AMD both sell CPUs marked well below their maximum potential frequency because of retail demand for the lower-specification (less expensive) chips.6) Overclocking with air cooling is not just possible, but popular. Especially with the newer 45nm process Core 2 processors, good air cooling can support relative high clock speeds at quite reasonable core temperatures.

Manora1 9 years ago

Cool hub! More informative about OC in CPU. Really useful and everybody has to know about this. Thanks for your good effort and sharing the information. I like this hub and rated 5*. I have bookmarked this hub to refer again. A similar informative and interesting site about Software Testing Procedures on http://www.softwaretestingnow.com/software-testing... Please visit this site for more information about Software Testing Procedures.